‘Meeting with Roads Service productive’ – Burns

A productive meeting was held between Sinn Féin councillors Colman Burns, Charlie Casey and Mick Murphy with Roads Service to outline the issues that they have been receiving in relation to roads in the Newry and Mourne constituency.

Speaking to Newry Times, Councillor Burns spoke after the meeting,

“We met with Cindy Noble who is the section engineer with Roads Service. It was a worthwhile meeting, and we each outlined the different roads that need addressed in our constituency.

“I pressed the urgent need to address the B30 road, which runs from Crossmaglen to Newry, it is a key road and it is a constant reminder of the lack of investment historically in our area.

Burns continued, “The question must be asked – where has the funding gone that was promised by DRD Minister Danny Kennedy to be used on rural roads? Back in June Mr Kennedy welcomed the additional funding of £37.5 million for road maintenance and transport services and stated, ‘Some £20million of the reallocated budget will be spent on much needed resurfacing, targeted primarily on local roads.’

“Although we warmly welcome all funding that goes towards our road infrastructure, we expressed our feeling that any extra monies that are allocated always seems to come very late in the year. This has a major effect on contractors who quite often are forced to pay off employees in December when funding runs out.

He added, “Then, when extra monies become available in late January or February, there is a huge surge to get the work completed before the end of the financial year.

“The fact that Mr Kennedy promised an additional £37.5 million seems to be coming by a similar route and has yet to filter down to Roads Division, and shows a lack of efficiency that needs to be addressed immediately.”